The new ownership group for the Baltimore Orioles under the leadership of David Rubenstein brings a lot of energy and hope for the future for the direction of the franchise. However, right out of the box they have made a major miscalculation in failing to consider the viewing needs of the city’s senior citizens. My mother is a 98 year-old resident of the Charlestown Retirement Community in Catonsville. I was visiting with her on Opening Day and the residents all were sporting their Orioles apparel and enthusiastically looking forward to the new season. Watching the games has become a daily highlight for many of these long-time faithful fans. But the buzz around campus was the $20/month hike that the Orioles and MASN had instituted in conjunction with Xfinity. Whereas all the residents had previously been receiving the Orioles broadcast as part of their basic TV package, the MASN channel has now been removed. That means that the large screen TVs in the common areas no longer show the games. And residents who are struggling on their fixed incomes to stay abreast of the rising costs of inflation must make a financial decision on whether to upgrade their coverage.
Senior Citizens Slighted by MASN Orioles Price Hike
Given all of the big money floating around owning such a premier franchise, you would think that the new owners could find some way to ease the burden for the senior citizens in retirement communities such as Charlestown. It is a disturbing trend to see viewership of sports continually being restricted to the higher income segment of society. It was not so long ago that the broadcasts were part of traditional basic network coverage. Then came the transition to cable and now you see the various streaming services (like Peacock and Apple+ TV) being required. Surely a game that is characterized as our national pastime should be made available to as wide a spectrum of economic levels as possible.
I urge the owners to intervene and get our senior citizens back on the MASN viewing platform.